{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2001",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2001,
    "subject": "urthquake and Cyriaca and Fred",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-12-02T07:40:42+00:00",
    "last": "1999-12-02T07:40:42+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0571@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at sirius.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-12-02T07:40:42+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) urthquake and Cyriaca and Fred",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "me wrote:\nin a pinch Severian can draw from a starship's battery, or even\nsomehow the energy of an earthquake (or was that the energy of sunlight on\nthe ground?).  In any event, Severian is something of an energy vampire.\n[snip]"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Roy wrote:\n   A minor quibble: My take on the earthquake is the exact opposite of\nthat; the earthquake was the effect, not the cause, of the energy exchange.\nSeverian was killed again (or at least should have been; he was hit by a\nbolt of energy from a Star Wars-like weapon), only he can't be killed by\nvirtue of some sort of semi-divine fiat until the New Sun comes, just as he\nshould have died from the beating earlier that night. The text makes clear\nthat Urth is too tired and energy depleted for earthquakes--not to mention\nthe unlikelihood of such a coincidence. However it was accomplished, the\nearthquake was the byproduct of the effort to preserve Sev's life."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "So Roy, are you saying that the resurrection at the Convulsor was\naccomplished via the more usual white fountain energy rather than any other\nsource?  I can't really tell from your post.\n\nI can certainly see the urthquake as being a =side effect= of the process\n(that is why I mentioned the solar/thermal/ground energy, after all); but\nsee, then analogy trips me up, since I immediately think of the big ship's\nlights going out when Severian tried to resurrect the murdered steward\n(detective work reveals that Severian somehow =reached deep= within the\nstructure he was standing on in order to draw energy).  And I also begin to\nwonder why there was no quake when he was killed in the beating earlier\nthat night--that is, what is the difference between death by beating and\ndeath by Convulsor?  Is it merely a matter of scale?  A beating shaves off\nlife-force bit by bit, so a trickle recharge might work to resurrect--but\nno, it is clear that Severian =dies=, he doesn't get energy (?) until\ndeath; and death is death (drowning, fiacre crash,avern poke, disease,\netc.).  But the Convulsor must be worse than a barroom brawl; say it is\nlike being drawn and quartered in an instant.  So now, along with the usual\ninfusion of life points, the resurrection process must involve reknitting\nlimbs to body, decrisping brain, etc.\n\nIs that it, then?  That this one particular job is so big that the healing\nphaser beam from the sky has to be set on \"11,\" which means that when the\nbeam hits Severian it splashes a bit, causing a quasi-quake (not a real\nquake) in the very local area (falling wall, broken court, bent keep)?\nJust log it on the \"Claw's One-Time Tricks\" list, entry three, after \"turn\nwater into wine\" and \"put an extra soul into the body of the dead soldier\"?\n\nRe: alga's notes on Cyriaca as mother of Severian.  I was immune to this\ncandidacy, since it first appeared (as so many things do) in Clute's essay,\nto be briefly mentioned and discarded.  But there are all sorts of\nsuggestions of that kind of thinking in what Cyriaca says to Severian; she\nseems to want to make him her dreamchild; and she has attributes that we\nassociate with his vaguemother.  So when Severian shows mercy and\nforgiveness to her, he is also showing mercy and forgiveness to his own\nmother (in a way less deadly than the  mercy he granted to Thecla).  No\ndoubt Catherine felt a warm glow at that moment.\n\nRe: Fred Hoyle--thanks for the tip, Damien, I'll watch for the book.\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}